This page intentionally left blank toward a theory of human rights In Toward a Theory of Human Rights, Michael Perry pursues three important, related inquiries: r Is there a non-religious (secular) basis for the morality of human rights? r What is the relationship between the morality of human rights and the law of human rights? Perry here addresses the controversial issues of capital punishment, abortion, and same-sex unions r What is the proper role of courts in protecting constitutionally entrenched human rights? Perry pays special attention to the role of the United States Supreme Court Toward a Theory of Human Rights makes a significant contribution both to the study of human rights and to constitutional theory Michael J Perry holds a Robert W Woodruff Chair at Emory University, where he teaches in the law school He has written more than sixty articles and essays and is the author of nine books, including Love and Power: The Role of Religion and Morality in American Politics (1991); The Idea of Human Rights (1998); We the People: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court (1999); and Under God? Religious Faith and Liberal Democracy (2003) Toward a Theory of Human Rights Religion, Law, Courts michael j perry Emory University CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521865517 © Michael J Perry 2007 This publication is in copyright Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press First published in print format 2006 eBook (EBL) ISBN-13 978-0-511-34891-4 ISBN-10 0-511-34891-6 eBook (EBL) ISBN-13 ISBN-10 hardback 978-0-521-86551-7 hardback 0-521-86551-4 Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate For my students, past, present, future I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you John 13:34 Just as a mother protects her child with her own life, in a similar way we should extend an unlimited heart to all beings Buddhist teaching Contents page ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction part one the morality of human rights The Morality of Human Rights The Morality of Human Rights: A Religious Ground The Morality of Human Rights: A Non-Religious Ground? 14 part two from morality to law From Morality to Law 33 Capital Punishment 37 Abortion 52 Same-Sex Unions 65 part three from law to courts Protecting Human Rights in a Democracy: What Role for the Courts? 87 How Should the Supreme Court Rule? Capital Punishment, Abortion, and Same-Sex Unions 118 Summation 141 Notes 143 Index 239 vii Index Abortion Argument, 59 adoption, 63 affirmative action, 78–83 African-Americans, 129, 130, 131 , 148, 231 African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, 77 agape, 10, 16, 154 AI See Amnesty International Alaska same-sex marriage and, 236 Supreme Court of, 202 Alston, Philip, 95 altruism, 150, 164, 167, 168 American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty, 77, 174, 183 American Federation of Labor, 221 American Journal of Jurisprudence, 19 Ammicht-Quinn, Regina, Amnesty International (AI), 173–74, 230 anthropocentrism, 167 antidiscrimination law, 76 antimiscegenation law, 137 Aquinas, Thomas, 47, 56, 60, 62, 150, 151 , 176 Aristotle, 52, 152, 157, 158, 199 Armenia, atheism, 15, 17 Atkins v Virginia, 127 atomic bomb, 162 Augustine (St.), 11 , 56, 175 abortion(s), 20, 35, 130, 143 See also fetal viability; pro-choice advocacy; pro-life advocacy; Roe v Wade decision alternatives to, 63 ban on early, 62 Catholic Church and, 60, 184, 191 criminalization of, 62, 64, 133–34 divisiveness of, 192 due process and Fourteenth Amendment and, 118, 130–35 government and, 59–64 homicide and, 131 as human rights issue, 54 illegal, 62 immorality of, 189 implications for, 52–64 informed consent for, 63 later-term, 59 liberal-democratic polity and, 60, 61 , 64 mid-term, 64, 187 non-categorizable, 61 –63 opponents of, 55 poor/non-poor women and, 62 post-viability, 59 pre-viability, 59–64, 130, 188 pro-life advocates and, 61 , 62 public good and, 131 , 135 quality-of-life judgments and, 187 rape and, 61 state’s banning of, 192 women punished for, 183 239 240 INDEX Bayle, Pierre, 15 Belgium, Bentham, Jeremy, 144 Bible, 136 See also Good Samaritan; Gospel of Matthew; Greek of the Septuagint Bickel, Alexander, 98, 104, 107, 139, 213, 221 , 223 Bill of Rights Eighth Amendment and, 227 International, 4, 5, 14, 37, 39, 110 South African, 92, 112 U.S Constitution and, 119, 226 biology See evolutionary biology Black Muslims, 148 blacks, lynching of, 146 Blair, Tony, 115, 218 Bokser, Baruch M., 150 Bokser, Ben Zion, 150 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 33, 34, 111 Boonin, David, 56, 57 Bork, Robert, 121 Bosnia, 3, 5, 194 Bradwell v Illinois decision, 67 Brandeis, Louis, 219 Bread for the World, 11 Brennan, William J., Jr., 123, 205, 229 brotherhood of man doctrine, 170 Brown v Board of Education decision, 107, 139, 234, 237 Brugger, E Christian,40, 41 , 42, 43, 46, 176 Buddha, 161 Buddhism, 14 Bush, George W., 201 Cambodia, Camus, Albert, 47 Canada See also Charter of Rights and Freedoms Constitution of, 81 –82 judicial penultimacy of, 105, 107, 114 Supreme Court of, 176, 197–98, 215, 217 capital punishment, 35 See also death abandoning reliance on, 49 abolition of, 126 administration of, 181 Amnesty International and, 230 cruel and unusual punishment nature of, 118, 119, 126 deterrent effect of, 50, 123, 126, 231 Eighth Amendment on, 118–27, 138, 229 Fifth Amendment and, 228 government and, 37 implications for, 52 liberal democracy and, 125 life-life tradeoff perspective and, 181 as machinery of death, 39 mentally retarded and, 126, 231 minors and, 126, 230, 231 moratorium on, 229 non-lethal v., 47 opposition to, 39 People in 1789–91 and, 122 retributive justification for, 126, 230 South Africa banning of, 95, 229 states abolishing, 124 states allowing, 124 torture plus, 181 2004 statistics on, 230 United States Supreme Court and, 125, 228, 229 U.S and, 48, 124, 125 Capital Punishment and Roman Catholic Moral Tradition (Brugger), 40 Carnahan, Mel, 176 Carter, Steven, 203 Castro, Manuel Monteiro de, 201 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 40, 47 Catholic Church, 40, 41 –42, 48, 187 abortion and, 60, 184, 191 Conference of Catholic Bishops, 40 homosexuality view of, 72, 201 killing humans forbidden by, 41 , 47 magisterium of, 196 male superiority view of, 194–95 same-sex unions opposed by, 70, 73 sex/procreation teachings of, 75 Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 38, 77, 78, 81 , 92, 99–101 , 197 fundamental rights outlined in, 99 human rights protection and, 100, 101 judicial penultimacy and, 217 Charter on Human and People’s Rights, 77 INDEX The Charter Revolution: Is It Undemocratic? (Hogg), 218 Chomsky, Noam, 170 Choper, Jesse, 207 Christian Church, 190 Christianity breaking with structures/beliefs of, 143 brotherhood of man doctrine of, 170 consequences of giving up, 16 same-sex unions and, 73, 136 Christopher, Warren, 25 Church of England, 191 constitutional conversation participation by, 222 court’s discouragement of, 97 exercise of judicial ultimacy sought by, 108 greater participation by, 108 immunities of U.S., 129 liberal democracy choices of, 98 marginalization of, 94 political sovereignty of, 104 Civil Rights Act of 1866, 128 Civil War (U.S.), 128, 129 Clarke, Edward H., 67 Cold War, 28 Commonweal, 184 compensatory discrimination, 81 conception, fertilization and, 183 Conference of Catholic Bishops, 40, 73 Confucius, 161 Congo, holocaust in, Connecticut, same-sex unions and, 236 consent See informed consent Constitution(s) See also United States Constitution Canadian, 81 –82 citizen’s conversation regarding, 222 disestablishing rights of, 113 human rights entrenched by Indian, 111 –12 Irish, 111 –12 judicially enforceable, 87 norms of, 104, 219, 220 241 South African, 51 , 65, 78, 82, 87, 90–91 , 95, 96, 112 welfare rights entrenched in, 111 Convention on the Rights of the Child, 54 cosmology, 17, 172 court(s) See also Supreme Court argument against empowering, 98 centered legalism of, 223 citizens discouraged by, 97 government judgments imposed by, 97 human rights protection by, 88, 93, 94–98, 102 intervention of, 218 judicial ultimacy and, 103 liberal democracy and, 90, 213 non-interference with, 207 official decisions reviewed by, 215 politically independent, 94, 106 Thayerian deference of, 103, 106 welfare rights and, 112 court-centered legalism, 223 Court of Human Rights, 92, 226 Cox, Archibald, 234 criminal, inherent dignity and, 47 cruel and unusual punishment See also punishment capital punishment as, 118, 119, 126 hallmark of, 228 inhumanness of, 120 objection to term, 227 original meaning of, 123 test of, 120 culture of death, 184 culture wars, 35 Darrow, Clarence, 16, 21 , 24, 164, 172 Darrow, Mac, 95 death See also capital punishment culture of, 184 God’s, 14, 23, 29, 173 holocaust and, 145 Nazi camps of, 27 penalty, 43, 48, 50, 179, 182 Declaration of Independence, 164 A Defense of Abortion (Boonin), 56 242 INDEX deference See Thayerian deference democracy See also liberal democracy argument from, 96–98, 137 education rights in, 110, 223 hostility to democratic deliberation by, 101 human being’s inherent dignity respected in, 111 political theory of, 107 rights protected in, 98 Schumpeterian idea of, 214 South Africa’s transition to, 89 welfare rights and, 223 determinacy, 33, 90, 91 , 92, 208 dictatorships, liberal democracy v., 204 A Dictionary of the English Language (Johnson), 119 dignity See inherent dignity Directive Principles of Social Policy, 111 Directive Principles of State Policy, 112 discrimination See also antidiscrimination law; non-discrimination compensatory, 81 governmental, 66 particularity and, 66–69 reverse, 80 women and, 67, 194 “Divine Command, Natural-Law, and Mutual Love Ethics” (Vacek), 156 Divine Command Theory, 159 doctrine brotherhood of man, 170 double effect, 41 judicial supremacy, 98, 99, 100, 101 , 215 double-effect doctrine, 41 Dred Scott v Sandford decision, 129, 231 due process abortion and, clause, 121 , 128 government and, 121 law, 109, 121 duties determinate v indeterminate, 33 Dworkin, Ronald, 20–21 , 22, 23, 24, 25 education, democracy and, 110, 223 Edwards, Paul, 16 Eighth Amendment, 118, 176, 226 Bill of Rights and, 227 capital punishment and, 118–27, 138, 229 mental retardation and, 127 minors and, 127 original meaning of, 123 torture banned in, 119 United States Supreme Court and, 121 Warren (Chief Justice) on, 123 Einstein, Albert, 184 Ely, John, 133, 233, 234 embryo(s) Christian Church and, 190 Church of England and, 191 determining status of, 53, 188 Methodist Conference and, 191 status of, 131 stem-cell research on, 190, 193 Encyclopedia of Genocide, 4, 146 Engelhardt, H Tristram, 53, 131 entrenched rights government and, 210 indeterminancy of, 90–93 protection of, 89, 90–93, 111 , 118, 210 U.S Constitution and, Epstein, Richard, 234 equality, 14, 72, 136, 232 Eskridge, William N., Jr., 75 ethics, natural-law v mutual love, 156 ethnic cleansing, 194 ethnocentricity, universality v., 27 eudaimonia, happiness v., 157 Eurocentricity, 26, 28 Europe Court of Human Rights of, 92, 226 Human Rights System of, 216 legislative supremacy in, 216 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 38, 54, 77, 78, 90, 91 , 96 Human Rights Act and, 113 United Kingdom’s signatory powers of, 116 European Union, 38 INDEX euthanasia, 20 Evangelium Vitae, 40, 187 evolutionary biology, 23–26 execution, incarceration v., 180 externalism, internalism v., 165 Fabre, C´ecile, 112 Farley, Margaret, 198 fascism, 162 federalism norms, 207 The Federalist Papers (Madison), 93, 208 feminism, 195 women and, 195 fertilization, conception and, 183 fetal viability, 55, 56, 57, 59, 61 , 187 dissensus regarding, 189, 233 inherent dignity and, 58 OCBA and, 57 technology and, 185, 186 Fifth Amendment capital punishment and, 228 due process clause of, 121 grand jury clause of, 121 Finnis, John, 18–19, 178 First Amendment, 138, 226 The First Letter of John, 8, 152 Flouting Thesis, 190 Foletter, Robert M La, 221 Foot, Philippa, 23 foundationalism, 26–29 Fourteenth Amendment, 118, 192 abortion and, 118, 130–35 due process clause of, 121 , 128 People in 1866–68 and, 119, 122 same-sex unions and, 118, 135–38 We the People understanding of, 127–30 Fourth Lateran Council, 151 Frank, Anne, 184 Frankfurter, Felix, 219 Frear, James A., 221 Freedom for Truth, 26 freedom of speech, 89 Friend, Charles, 178 fulfillment human, 151 self-, 12 243 Gabin, Sanford, 220 Gadamer, Hans-Georg, 209 Gaita, Raimond, 7, 15, 17–18, 40 Galanter, Marc, 81 Galston, William, 190 Gardbaum, Stephen, 216, 217, 218, 225 Garnett, Rick, 180 Gauthier, David, 29, 170–72 gay bashing, 196 The Gay Science (Nietzsche), genocide See also Encyclopedia of Genocide Muslims and, Nazis and, 145 Rwanda, 163 Georgia, same-sex unions benefits ban by, 74 Germany, 34 Gerson, Michael, 155 Ginsberg, Ruth Bader, 80 God, See also atheism created things compared to, 151 death/deconstruction of, 14, 23, 29, 173 experience of love in, 149 human beings as children of, 9, 21 , 24, 40 human beings loved by, humanity created in image of, 55–56, 151 of the impossible, 150 inherent dignity and, 55 Law of, 12, 159 love of children by, questioning existence of, 12 same-sex unions and, 136 as supreme legislator, 12 union with, vanishing of, 18 Goldsworthy, Jeffrey, 19, 105, 218 good life, 152 goodness, human being’s, 22 Good Samaritan, Parable of, 155 Gospel of Matthew, 153 government(s) abortions and, 59–64 appropriate actions of, 214 authoritarian, repressive, 204 244 INDEX government(s) (cont.) capital punishment and, 37 court-imposed judgments on, 97 discrimination/non-discrimination by, 66 due process law and, 109, 121 electorally accountable branches of, 94 entrenched rights against, 210 human rights and, 87, 94, 99, 109 under law, 212 particularity and, 69 racial classification by, 79 same-sex unions and, 69–75, 136 varied actions of, 212 grand jury clause, 121 Greek of the Septuagint (Leviticus 19:18), 42 Greene, Graham, 10 Gunther, Gerald, 234 Habermas, Jăurgen, 3, 15, 154, 159 Hand, Learned, 206, 210 happiness, 11 Aristotle’s invocation of, 157 eudaimonia v., 157 Hart, H L A., 208, 210, 213 Harvard Law Review, 104–09, 219 Harvard Law School, 104–09, 210 Hatch, Orrin, 184 health care rights, 110 Hegel, G W F., 158 Heschel, Abraham, 16, 163 heterosexuality, homosexuality v., 72, 199 Hills, Roderick, 74 Hiroshima, 162 Hitler, Adolf, 3, 67 Hogg, Peter, 218 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 219 holocaust(s) Congo’s, death toll of, 145 Nazis and, 162 holy scriptures, 159 homicide characterizing laws against, 132 pre-viability abortions and, 131 homosexuality, 70, 71 , 196 Catholic Church view of, 72, 201 criminalizing, 196 equality and, 72, 136 fear/loathing of, 196 gay bashing and, 196 heterosexuality v., 72, 199 liberal democracy and, 73 White House stance on, 200 housing rights, 110 human beings See also unborn human beings as children of God, 8, 9, 21 , 24, 40 cosmic role of, 163 created nature of, 23 depravity of, 39 fetal viability and, 55, 56, 57 forfeiting dignity by, 39–41 , 53 fulfillment of, 151 God’s creation of, 55–56, 151 good judgment of, 209 goodness of, 22 human beings caring for, 9, 22, 169 inherent dignity of, 2, 5, 8, 14, 27, 111 inhumanity of, 35 limited view of, 149 meaningful lives of, 12 natural-law morality of, 19 natural selection and, 24 nature of, 26 non-harmful nature of, 19 non-inherent dignity of, as Other, 67 preciousness of, predicament of, 208 pursuing goodness of, 22 sacredness of, 20–21 , 151 , 169 satisfying life of, 24 sins against, 35 social nature of, 25 status of unborn, 133 torture of, 39 unity of, 57, 167 unlimited possibilities of, 160–61 violation of, 33 humanism, 162 humanity, inclusiveness of, 22 INDEX human rights See also Universal Declaration of Human Rights abortion issue and, 54 activists for, 172 affirmation of universal, 33–36 cause of, 26 Charter of Rights and Freedom and, 100, 101 constitutional provisions entrenching controversy, 94 court protection of, 88, 93, 94–98, 102 culture of, 27 denial of, 25 determinate/indeterminate, 90, 91 , 92 entrenching of, 89, 90–93, 111 , 118, 210 Eurocentric culture of, 26, 28 fetal viability and, 55, 56, 57 foundationalism, 26–29 against government, 109 government and, 87, 94, 99, 109 hypothetical cases regarding, 42–43, 46 indeterminacy of entrenched, 90–93 international law of, 54 issues involving, 141 judicial supremacy and, 100 judiciary protection of, 94, 99, 214, 225 law of, 35, 87, 110, 141 , 183 legal rights as, 87 legislators and, 35, 99 morality of, , 3–6, 12, 14, 21 , 25, 52, 65, 120, 123, 141 , 206 national law on, 78 Nazi denouncement of, 67 non-judicial protections of, 94 origin of, 146 recognition of, 34 revolution, 204 Rorty’s foundationalism of, 26–29 secular argument for, 166 violators of, 25 welfare sort of, 89, 109–13 Human Rights Act of 1998, 90, 96, 113–17, 224–25 accommodations made by, 113 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and, 113 245 incompatibility declaration of, 225 limited powers of, 114 primary legislation of, 114 United Kingdom and, 90, 96, 113–17 Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act, 197 Human Rights System, 216 Hume, David, 157, 158 ICCPR See International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ICESR See International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights incarceration, execution v., 180 incumbents/incumbency cardinal value of, 94 pleasing decisions by, 94 indeterminacy, 33, 90–93, 207, 208 India, Constitution of, 111 –12 infanticide, 52 informed consent, 63 inherent dignity, 40, 43 acquisition of, 55 depraved criminals and, 47 fetal viability and, 58 forfeiting, 39–41 , 53 God and, 55 human being’s, 5, 8, 14, 27, 111 human being’s lack of, killing and, 40, 44 Other’s, 29 secular thinker’s problem with, 141 suffering and, 34 unborn human being’s, 53, 54–59, 143, 186 inhumanity, 34 institutions See non-judicial institutions internalism, externalism v., 165 International Bill of Rights, 4, 5, 14, 37, 39, 110 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 77 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 77, 80 246 INDEX International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 4, 37, 38, 54, 76, 147, 174 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESR), 4, 37, 76, 110, 147 “Introduction: The Spirituality of the Talmud” (Bokser & Bokser), 150 intuitions See moral intuitions Ireland, Constitution of, 111 –12 Islam, Jefferson, Thomas, 148 Jesus execution of, 152 final words to disciples by, 153 love commandment of, 9, 10, 149, 152, 154, 188 Jews, 8, 21 , 22, 149, 159 homosexuals compared to, 70 Nazi ideology regarding, 66 Passover Seder of, 152 John Paul II (Pope), 13, 40, 41 –42, 43, 46, 47, 49, 65, 68, 170, 176, 187 Johnson, Elizabeth, 195 Johnson, Lyndon, 234 Johnson, Samuel, 119 judges deferential attitudes of, 103 influencing of, 213 Jehovah’s Witnesses/Amish and, 223 lenient v severe, 51 political independence of, 207 judicial deference, 102–09 as “rule of the clear mistake,” 104 Thayerian argument for, 221 United States Supreme Court’s embrace of, 109 judicialization, 88, 205 judicial penultimacy Canada’s, 105, 107, 114 case for, 101 –02 Charter of Rights and Freedoms and, 217 establishment of, 108 Gardbaum’s predictions on, 218 judicial ultimacy v., 101 poorly functioning, 105 Supreme Court exercise of, 139 Thayerian deference in system of, 106 U.S., 114 Judicial Review and the National Political Process: A Functional Reconsideration of the Supreme Court (Choper), 207 judicial supremacy, doctrine of, 98, 99, 100, 101 , 215 judicial ultimacy citizens and, 108 courts and, 103 hostility of, 103 judicial penultimacy v., 101 liberal democracy and, 103 South Africa’s, 224 Thayerian plea for judicial deference and, 102–09 United States Supreme Court and, 106–07 U.S system of, 103 judiciary countermajoritarian review of, 217 curbing power of, 222 human rights protection by, 94, 99, 214, 225 liberal democracy’s empowerment of, 88 U.S review of, 99 welfare rights enforced by, 112 justice, 81 , 158, 162, 171 Kant, Immanuel, 33, 154, 157, 158 Kaveny, M Cathleen, 60, 62, 63, 64, 183, 189, 190 Kay, Richard, 226 Kennedy, John F., 234 Kentucky, Supreme Court of, 71 , 72, 198 killing Catholic Church’s forbidding of, 41 , 47 inherent dignity and, 44 intentionality of, 43, 44, 49 unconditionalist principle and, 49 King, Martin Luther, Jr., 34 Kolakowski, Leszek, 15, 16 INDEX Kronman, Anthony, 210 Ku Klux Klan, 163 Labor government, 218 Langan, John, 61 , 191 –92 Lao-Tze, 161 Last Judgment, 153 law(s) adoption, 63 amending/repealing, 89 antidiscrimination, 76 antimiscegenation, 137 characterizing homicide, 132 due process of, 109, 121 God’s, 12, 159 government under, 212 homicide, 132 human rights, 35, 87, 110, 141 , 183 international, 4, 54, 77, 143, 183 legislators and unconstitutionality of, 215 legislator’s enactment/enforcement of, 52 national human rights, 78 protective, 128 lawyers, The Least Dangerous Branch (Bickel), 139 Leff, Art, 18 legalism, 223 legal rights, 87, 143 legal-rights-talk, 205 legislative supremacy, 216 legislator(s) God as supreme, 12 human rights and, 35, 99 law enforcement/enactment by, 52 law’s unconstitutionality and, 215 power transfer by, 106 principles followed by, 212 risk shunned by, 211 Leopold II (King), Levi, Primo, 34, 159 L´evi-Strauss, Claude, 22–23 liberal democracy, 50, 148 abortion and, 60, 61 , 64 247 capital punishment and, 125 ceding power to courts in, 90, 101 citizen choice in, 98 courts and, 90, 213 dictatorships v., 204 domestic legal system of, 216 empowering judiciary in, 88 freedom of speech in, 89 generalizations regarding, 94 historical experience of, 95 homosexuality and, 73 judicially enforceable constitutions of, 87 judicial ultimacy and, 103 political freedom enjoyed in, 87 rights commitment of, 111 rights protection in, 93 unborn human beings status in, 133 liberalism, , 167 See also “ Postmodern Bourgeois Liberalism” life good, 152 religion and meaning of, 12, 160 sacredness of human, 20–21 , 151 , 169 life-life tradeoff perspective, 181 Lippman, Walter, 211 “Living in the Law” (Kronman), 210 Lochner v New York decision, 232 love God experienced as, 149 intentionally killing and, 49 Jesus’s commandment to, 9, 10, 149, 152, 154, 188 language of, 10, 164, 172 morality animated by, 157 of Other, 11 Loving v Virginia decision, 137 Luhmann, Niklas, lynching, 146 machinery of death See capital punishment Madison, James, 93, 226 man-woman unions, same-sex unions v., 74–75 Mao Tse-Tung, 248 INDEX “Marbury v Madison and the Theory of Judicial Supremacy” (Tushnet), 215 Marbury v Madison decision, 215 marriage, 72, 137, 199, 200 Marshall, John, 210, 220–21 , 229 Marx, Karl, 172 Massachusetts Catholic Conference, 201 Matthew’s Gospel, 153 Maudsley, H., 67 McCormick, Richard, 189, 233 meaning, cry for, 163 Mease, Darrell, 176 Meigs, C., 68 Melville, Herman, 155 mentally retarded capital punishment and, 126, 127, 231 Eighth Amendment and, 127 Methodist Conference, 191 Michelman, Frank, 205 Milosz, Czeslaw, 28, 172 minors capital punishment and, 126, 230, 231 Eighth Amendment and, 127 moral intuitions, 159 moralists, vulnerability of, 165 morality abortions and, 189 biological roots of, 151 circle of, 168 essence of, 17 human rights, 141 of human rights, , 3–6, 12, 14, 21 , 25, 52, 65, 120, 123, 206 international law and, Kant and, 154 love-animated, 157 as myth, 161 natural-law, 19 Nazi’s, 67 Nietzsche and, 23, 29 Plato and, 161 politics v., 191 , 192 questioning, 156 religion and, 14 self-interest based, 170 sex and, 71 moral philosophy, 23, 158, 168 moral rights, 143 moral-rights-talk, 144, 205 Morals By Agreement (Gauthier), 170–72 murder dignity and, 40, 43 newborn infant’s, 52 Murphy, Jeffrie, 17, 175 Murphy, Walter, 100 Muslims, mutual love ethics, 156 Nagel, Robert, 213 Nagel, Thomas, 17 Native Americans, 3, 145 Natural Law and Natural Rights (Finnis), 18 natural-law ethics, 156 natural-law morality, 19 natural-law tradition, 18, 19, 165 natural selection, 24 Nazis, 21 , 22, 148 death camps of, 27 genocide and, 145 Holocaust and, 162 human rights denounced by, 67 Jewish non-humanness concept of, 66 morality of, 67 networks of reciprocity, 169 New Jerusalem Bible, 155 The New Originalism (Whittington), 226–27 New Testament, 42 New York Times, 55, 177 Niederauer, George H., 201 Nietzsche, Friedrich, , 14, 16, 18, 141 God’s death and, 14, 23, 29 justice concept of, 171 morality and, 23, 29 non-discrimination, 65–66, 76, 78 non-judicial institutions, 210 non-theism, theism v., 56 Nordic Bliss? Scandinavian Registered Partnerships and the Same-Sex Marriage Debate (Eskridge, Spedale, Ytterberg), 75 INDEX normativity, 21 , 22 source of, 23, 24 transgressing world’s, 27 norms constitutional, 104, 219, 220 determinate, 208 federalism, 207 same-sex union, 198 separation of powers, 207 specifying, 210 Nussbaum, Martha, 20, 22–23, 24, 25, 26, 199 OCBA See organized cortical brain activity Organization of American States, 174 organized cortical brain activity (OCBA), 57, 185 originalism, 122, 226–27 “The Origin and Scope of the American Doctrine of Constitutional Law” (Thayer), 104–09, 219 Orwin, Clifford, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, 218 Other inherent dignity of, 29 less-than-fully-human, 67 love of, 11 Ottoman Turks, Outka, Gene, 193 Parable of the Good Samaritan, 155 particularity demeaning view of one’s, 66–68 government and, 69 negative generalization about, 68–69, 80 Passover seder, 152 penultimacy See judicial penultimacy Perry, Michael J., 180 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 202 philosophy See moral philosophy Pildes, Rick, 96 Plato, 52, 161 , 199 Platonic Guardians, 206 249 politics controversies engaging/dividing, judicialization of, 88, 205 liberal democracy and, 87 morality v., 191 , 192 negative generalizations and, 69 United States Supreme Court usurpation of, 205 Pope, Stephen, 151 Posner, Richard, 17, 93, 132, 138, 212, 235, 237 “Postmodern Bourgeois Liberalism” (Rorty), pregnancy See abortion(s) Prejean, Helen, 182 principles applying constitution’s, 122 legislator’s, 212 unconditionalist, 41 –51 privacy rights, 233 pro-choice advocacy, 132 pro-life advocacy, 61 , 62, 185, 234, 235 “Promote, Preserve, Protect Marriage,” 73 protective laws, 128, 188 public good differential treatment serving, 129, 131 pre-viability abortions serving of, 131 , 135 regulation for, 235 punishment legitimate aims of, 46 torture as, 227 Putnam, Hillary, quality-of-life judgments, 187 Rabkin, Jeremy, 79 race affirmative action based on, 78–83 government classification by, 79 marginalization by, 79 systematic disadvantaging by, 68 Rahner, Karl, 152, 153 Ramsey, Paul, 185 rape, 5, 61 reasonable doubt test, 220 250 INDEX reciprocal altruism, 168 reciprocity, networks of, 169 rehabilitation, 46, 47 Reilly, Daniel P., 201 religion(s) Jerusalem-based, life’s meaning and, 12, 160 morality and, 14 scapegoating of, 146 violence and, 146 representatives, laws enacted/enforced by, 52 reproductive health, 183 reverence, language of, reverse discrimination, 80 Richards, David, 194 rights See also human rights disestablishment of constitutional, 113 due process of law, 109 education, 110, 223 entrenched, 89, 90–93, 111 , 118, 210 government’s entrenched, 118, 210 health care, 110 housing, 110 judicial protection of, 214, 225 legal, 87, 143 liberal democracy’s commitment to, 111 minimum income, 110 moral, 143 political, economic, social, 224 positive/negative, 109 privacy, 233 protection of, 93, 98 welfare, 110, 111 , 112, 223 rights-talk, 144 right-to-life movement, 184 Roach, Kent, 218 Roe v Wade decision, 62, 132–33, 192, 233, 234, 235 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 147 Romney, Mitt, 175 Roper v Simmons decision, 127 Rorty, Richard, , 23, 26–29, 157 Ruether, Rosemary, 72 rule of the clear mistake, 104 Rwanda, 3, 147, 163 same-sex unions, 35, 65 See also marriage Alaska and, 236 benefits extended to, 130, 202 Bible and, 136 Bush, George W., and, 201 Castro and, 201 Catholic Church view of, 70, 73 Christianity and, 73, 136 Connecticut and, 236 constitutional ban of, 73, 88 differential treatment for, 135 Fourteenth Amendment and, 118, 135–38 Georgia’s benefits ban to, 74 God and, 136 government and, 69–75, 136 man-woman unions v., 74–75 Massachusetts and, 236 norms governing, 198 Posner on, 235 possible consequences of, 75 state’s non-recognition of, 136 U.S stance on, 202 Vermont and, 236 Scalia, Antonin, 121 , 122, 229 scapegoating, 146 Scarmen, Lord, 95 Schmitt, Carl, 67 Schroeder, Patricia, 211 Schumpeter, Joseph, 214 scriptures, 159, 160–61 Scruton, Roger, 74, 157, 199 Searle, John, 141 Second Optional Protocol, 37, 38, 174 self-fulfillment, 12 self-transcendence, 12, 154 Sen, Amartya, 33–34 separation of powers norms, 207 Serbia, 148 Sex in Education (Clarke), 67 sex, morality and, 71 Shepherd, Joanna, 179 Singer, Peter, 53, 131 INDEX The Sirens of Titan (Vonnegut), 163 Smith, Adam, 52 social justice, 81 Social Rights Under the Constitution: Government and the Decent Life (Fabre), 112 sodomy, 70, 71 Souter, David, 134 South Africa, 51 , 65, 78, 82, 87, 88 Bill of Rights of, 92, 112 constitution of, 51 , 65, 78, 82, 87, 90–91 , 95, 96, 112 death penalty banned by, 95, 229 judicial ultimacy in, 224 transition to democracy in, 89 Spedale, Darren, 75 speech, freedom of, 89 Stalin, Josef, Steiker, Carol, 48 Steinfels, Peter, 184 stem-cell research, 190, 193 Straw, Jack, 225 suffering, respecting dignity of, 34 supremacy See legislative supremacy Supreme Court See also United States Supreme Court Alaskan, 202 Canadian, 176, 197–98, 215, 217 Kentucky’s, 71 , 72, 198 Tawney, R H., 17 Taylor, Charles, 158, 167 technology, fetal viability and, 185, 186 terrorism, 45–46 Thayerian deference, 103, 106, 109, 127, 138, 221 Thayer, James Bradley, 97–98, 104–09, 137, 219, 221 theism, non-theism v., 56 Tinder, Glenn, 16 Tirthankara, 161 Tolstoy, Leo, 161 Torah, 149 torture, 42 capital punishment and, 181 Eighth Amendment banning of, 119 251 of human beings, 39 as punishment, 227 U.S Constitution’s banning of, 119 totalitarianism, 28 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Wittgenstein), 150 transcendence names for, 16 self-, 12, 154 Tribe, Laurence, 53, 132 Truth and Method (Gadamer), 209 Tushnet, Mark, 96, 105, 108, 112, 213, 215, 223 Tutu, Desmond, 16, 162 twentieth-century, horrors of, ultimacy See judicial penultimacy; judicial ultimacy unborn human beings inherent dignity of, 53, 54–59, 143, 186 liberal democracy and, 133 non-indifference to, 190 protection of, 188 unconditionalist principle, 41 –46 beyond, 46–51 killing and, 49 Under God? Religious Faith and Liberal Democracy (Perry, M.), 73, 136 United Kingdom, 78 Church of England of, 191 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, signatory powers of, 116 European Human Rights System and, 216 Human Rights Act of 90, 96, 113–17 Labor Government of, 218 legislative inertia of, 115 transnational legal system of, 116 United Nations, 37, 146 United States (U.S.) abortion criminalization in, 64 capital punishment in, 48, 124, 125 citizen immunity in, 129 Conference of Catholic Bishops, 40, 73 252 INDEX United States (U.S.) (cont.) Congress of, 48 culture wars of, 35 judicial penultimacy of, 114 judicial review in, 99 judicial supremacy in, 98, 99, 100, 101 , 215 judicial ultimacy of, 103 popular sovereignty of, 216 same-sex union stance of, 202 United States (U.S.) Constitution, 87, 88, 213, 222 See also Eighth Amendment; Fifth Amendment; First Amendment; Fourteenth Amendment applying principles of, 122 Bill of Rights, 119, 226 Framers of, 229 originalism and text of, 122 Preamble, 119 same-sex unions and, 73, 88 torture banned in, 119 We the People text of, 119 United States Supreme Court, 62, 67, 80, 87, 98, 192 antimiscegenation law struck down by, 137 Atkins v Virginia decision of, 127 Bradwell v Illinois decision, 67 Brown v Board of Education decision, 107, 139, 234, 237 capital punishment and, 125, 228, 229 congressional override of, 107 Dred Scott v Sandford decision, 129, 231 equal protection and, 232 judicial deference embraced by, 109 judicial penultimacy exercised by, 139 judicial ultimacy exercised by, 106–07 Lochner v New York decision, 232 Loving v Virginia decision, 137 Marbury v Madison decision of, 215 non-judicial institutions of, 210 politics usurped by, 205 protecting entrenched human rights by, 89, 90–93, 111 , 118, 210 Roe v Wade decision, 62, 132–33, 192, 233, 234, 235 Roper v Simmons decision of, 127 Thayerians and, 109, 127 usurpation of politics by, 205 West Virginia State Board of Education v Barnette decision of, 219 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 4–5, 37, 54, 66, 76, 147 universality, ethnocentricity v., 27 universe, meaninglessness of, 16 University of Notre Dame, 60 us-ism, 160 U.S See United States Vacek, Edward Collins, 156 Vallentyne, Peter, 171 Vermont Same-sex unions in, 236 violence faces of, 64 religion and, 146 Vonnegut, Kurt, 163 “The Wages of Crying Wolf” (Ely), 233 Waldron, Jeremy, 97, 108, 212 Walzer, Michael, 112 Warren, Earl, 123 Wechsler, Herbert, 213 Weiler, Paul, 100–01 , 107, 221 Weinberg, Steven, 17, 21 , 24, 172 welfare rights, 110, 223 constitutional entrenchment of, 111 courts and, 112 judicial enforcement of, 112 West Virginia State Board of Education v Barnette decision, 219 We the People, 34, 119, 127–30, 207 We the People: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court (Perry), 128, 226 White House, homosexuality stance of, 200 White Supremacy ideology, 137 Whittington, Keith, 122, 226–27 WHO See World Health Organization Wilde, Oscar, 70 Williams, Bernard, 26, 29, 141 Wills, Gary, 61 , 134 Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 150 INDEX women abortion and, 62, 183 demeaning of, 235 discrimination against, 67, 194 feminism and, 195 male’s inferior view of, 194–95 right to privacy and, 233 253 World Conference on Human Rights, 25 World Health Organization (WHO), 62 World War II, 34, 95, 96, 162 Wreen, Michael, 59 Yahweh, 39 Ytterberg, Hans, 75 ... moral -rights- talk – and, because of my lawyer’s bias against moralrights-talk, I prefer to talk about the morality of human rights without engaging in moral -rights- talk When I say “the morality of human rights, ”... metaphysical order of any kind .”4 Part Two How we get from the morality of human rights to the law of human rights: What laws should we who affirm the morality of human rights, because we affirm... moral -rights- talk – a bias that reflects my socialization many years ago into the world of lawyers, where legal rights are generally taken to be the paradigm of rights, and moral rights (so-called) are often